They say that successful tennis players have a belief in themselves that when they walk on the court they expect to do well...to win. Do you have belief in your investment knowledge and skills, do you feel that no matter what happens, you will be successful?

Last edited by tennisplyr on Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:20 am, edited 1 time in total.

Those who move forward with a happy spirit will find that things always work out.

They say that successful tennis players have a belief in themselves that when they walk on the court they expect to do well...to win. Do you have belief in your investment skills, do you feel that no matter what happens, you will be successful?

No. How could I feel that?

"Earn All You Can; Give All You Can; Save All You Can." .... John Wesley

I do believe that being more confident than a fairly equal opponent can be a benefit but believing I can beat Serena Williams may be as delusional as thinking my belief has any influence over long-term returns. Since success is an entirely different and subjective measure then if I believe I am successful then I am. Pointless.

Last edited by Presintense on Thu Mar 14, 2019 7:28 am, edited 1 time in total.

They say that successful tennis players have a belief in themselves that when they walk on the court they expect to do well...to win. Do you have belief in your investment skills, do you feel that no matter what happens, you will be successful?

If you measure success as having a reasonable strategy and adhering to it, sure. If you measure success as actually reaching a financial goal through investment performance, definitely not. For a passive investor, the primary drivers of investment outcomes are not under the control of the investor. No amount of knowledge, skill, practice, mental acuity, or self-confidence can change that. No body, thing, or force cares about your beliefs or expectations, which are totally irrelevant in every way. Bummer.

They say that successful tennis players have a belief in themselves that when they walk on the court they expect to do well...to win. Do you have belief in your investment knowledge and skills, do you feel that no matter what happens, you will be successful?

Of course, all I touch is gold!

We believe there is a simple and powerful explanation for high levels of trading on financial markets: overconfidence. Human beings are overconfident about their abilities, their knowledge, and their future prospects. Odean [1998] shows that overconfident investors—who believe that the precision of their knowledge about the value of a security is greater than it actually is—trade more than rational investors and that doing so lowers their expected utilities. Greater overconfidence leads to greater trading and to lower expected utility.

Apparently this is particularly true among the male side of the species (per research), but by no means would I ever suggest that females couldn't have the trait in abundance or that particular males don't suffer from it.

Psychologists find that in areas such as finance men are more overconfident than women. This difference in overconfidence yields two predictions: men will trade more than women, and the performance of men will be hurt more by excessive trading than the performance of women.

Consistent with the predictions of the overconfidence models, we find that the average turnover rate of common stocks for men is nearly one and a half times that for women. While both men and women reduce their net returns through trading, men do so by 0.94 percentage points more a year than do women.

They say that successful tennis players have a belief in themselves that when they walk on the court they expect to do well...to win. Do you have belief in your investment knowledge and skills, do you feel that no matter what happens, you will be successful?

I felt that way about my career. I think it helped me be more successful.
I have the same belief about life in general, in that I have been fortunate to have a lot of advantages, and feel well equipped to deal with whatever the future may hold, for good or bad.

But, in investing, I am not even sure i know who the "opponent" is I am playing against. So, I don't really try to use my knowledge and skill to out-smart the markets, i just accept what the market provides and try to utilize my knowledge and skills in other areas to make it all work.

Once in a while you get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.

I believe if I save more, I will accumulate more than those that don't.
I believe if I make regular investments in a broadly diversified portfolio I will average the returns available in those investments, and avoid the pitfalls inherent of more concentrated portfolios and playing the trading game.
I believe paying lower fees leads to higher returns for the same investments (obviously for the exact same investment, but also for the average and aggregate performance of alternatively weighted/traded portfolios sampled over time).

"To achieve satisfactory investment results is easier than most people realize; to achieve superior results is harder than it looks." - Benjamin Graham

Do you have belief in your investment knowledge and skills, do you feel that no matter what happens, you will be successful?

It is an interesting question to ponder.
I have a belief that the stock market (and index funds) will increase in value over time. I believe we've saved well and have an appropriate mix of stocks and bonds. Overconfidence is a known behavioral pitfall in investing. Mostly, I'm grateful and hopeful.

They say that successful tennis players have a belief in themselves that when they walk on the court they expect to do well...to win. Do you have belief in your investment knowledge and skills, do you feel that no matter what happens, you will be successful?

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To some, the glass is half full. To others, the glass is half empty. To an engineer, it's twice the size it needs to be.